Posted on 06/20/2005 4:50:28 PM PDT by NewMediaFan
No less an authority than Sam Donaldson, the television newsman notorious for bellowing hard questions at presidents, has concluded that it's time to blow taps over that most venerable of institutions, the network evening news.
Beset by mounting competition, journalistic missteps, changing demographics and the departure of some long-term marquee personalities, the network evening news program is a shell of its former self - no longer attracting the devotion that made it, in the 1960s and '70s, America's dominant information source.
"I think it's dead, sorry," Donaldson said during a panel discussion at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas last April. "The monster anchors are through."
While 30 million viewers still tune in to the nightly newscasts offered by the erstwhile Big Three - NBC, ABC and CBS - Donaldson and others cite dropping viewership numbers and the public's desire to get its news from other, more contemporary, outlets as proof that the 30-minute broadcasts are headed for the twilight.
"God forbid, if someone shot the president, which network would you turn to?" Donaldson asked. "It will be cable, the Internet, something other than 'General Hospital' being interrupted."
Indeed, there exists plentiful evidence that your father's network evening news - the arena for heavyweights like Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley - is headed down the same road as the Oldsmobile. According to polling by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 60 percent of those questioned in 1993 said they regularly watched the nightly news on one of the three major broadcast networks. By 2004, that number had plunged to 34 percent.
Things don't seem to be getting any better.
In May, Nielsen Media Research reported that those viewing the "NBC Nightly News" had dropped 6 percent from the same six-month period...
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxstudio.com ...
I'll drink to that Sammy,glad I'm around to see it.
It's dead, Jim
Hehe.. I guess I'm going to have to wipe this great big smile off my face and pretend to feel sorry for them. "NOT!"
Well Sam, we sure as hell wouldn't turn to ABC, because most of us wouldn't want to see you guys struggling to hide your glee and implying that the President deserved to be shot. the same goes for CBS, NBC and CNN.
And that perfectly sums up just why you're writing network news' obituary
Nyah! Nyah! Nyah! Nyah!
Nyah! Nyah! Nyah! Nyah!
Hey! Hey! Hey!
Go-od-bye!
Yep, the American public(or at least a good percentage of it) would like to hear a more "fair and balanced" presentation of world events. The alphabet networks have proven that they are incapable of separating their political bias from the news. Bye bye.
Ding Dong, the witch is dead!!
Sam, Sam, Sam. If only you were a Freeper, always on the cutting edge; you'd have figured that out about two years ago.
Really? Wow maybe we misjudged them.
Man! I know that song...are you a geezer too? ;>)
A lot of stupid ones, too. He's the second reason I stopped watching network news 18 years ago. Dan Rather was the first.
Oh, boo hoo!
"God forbid, if someone shot the president, which network would you turn to?" Donaldson asked.
Could he have used another example besides the President being shot? Or perhaps his Freudian slip overcame him?
I think Sam Donaldson's mother was a Vulcan...
Check out the person just to the right of Bin Laden's face... 
I haven't watched since I was 25 yrs old. And now I'm hmmmm. never mind. 20+ years make that :)
Loved this!:
Beset by mounting competition, journalistic missteps, changing demographics and the departure of some long-term marquee personalities, the network evening news program is a shell of its former self
How about the fraud, the bias, the idiot anchors, the bias, the news directors who'd rather MAKE the news instead of reporting it, the bias, the collusion, the bias. And don't forget the bias!!
What a bunch of maroons!
Now, with Fox, CNN, PMSNBC, et al, the FCC isn't near as tough as they once were.
IMHO, the local stations could loose the network news and not miss it all that much. Or cut the net news to 10 or 15 minutes.
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